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You’d be dumb to miss this one
THE DUMB WAITER
Trafalgar Studios
GOT a spare 60 minutes? Do yourself a favour and see Harold Pinter’s 1957 gripping two-hander. This action-packed, terrifying comedy is given an excellent revival by Harry Burton and is a brilliant way to pass an hour.
Ben (Jason Isaacs) and Gus (Lee Evans) are two hitmen biding time in Peter McKintosh’s windowless dingy Birmingham basement. Like Beckett’s famous pair – Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot – the two are waiting and it is unapparent what lies in store from them.
We first meet Ben lying on his uninviting metal bed, reading the paper – every now and then he shares snippets of the news with Gus who is gradually waking.
From the start, the suspense is high. As Gus scratches his bum, then his face and ties his shoe laces, one wonders what is in store. Evans’s comic genius is such that without uttering any words he holds our attention and provides an emotionally intense performance.
When they do speak – and speak they do – it is apparent that Gus is subservient to the senior and aggressive partner Ben – killing is certainly not in his bones and he is terrified by the menacing undertones surrounding him.
Any actor playing opposite Evans would have a tough job, but Isaacs’ strength lies in making this bullying role his own. When food is passed via the dumb waiter – a pulley-operated lift that takes food from the former kitchen that this room once was to the upstairs restaurant – one feels for Gus who is coerced into sacrificing all his food including the eccles cake he had been dreaming of devouring.
Although the ticket prices are steep – £30 for a top seat – the show is very funny and well worth seeing.
CNJ booking line: 0870 040 0070
Until March 24 |
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